Hey #Autism Parents – Do you realize how stressed you are? (POLL)

One of my personal passions is advocating for Autism Parents and reminding them to take care of themselves, no matter what their situation may be. We can get into an endless debate about how hard it is to do so. The truth of the matter is, it’s very difficult if not impossible at times to put yourself first. I absolutely agree with that.

Having said that and for the purposes of this particular post, let’s assume that we all agree self-care is vital and we have to make time for ourselves.

With that in mind, I’m going to ask you a very important question at the end of this brief article. I ask that you answer as honestly as possible and share the poll when your done. The more people we get thinking about this, the better.

Autism Parenting is literally among the most difficult and stressful jobs any human being can do. It’s impossible to truly qualify how bad the stress is and how much it impacts parents on a daily basis. We all know how detrimental stress is to our overall health and well-being. If stress goes unchecked, it can have serious repercussions on your emotional and physical health.

As Autism Parents, we’re exposed to this every minute, every hour of every day.

There’s very real danger that we become so accustomed to that stress that it becomes normal to us. In my opinion, that’s very dangerous because if we become so used to something that we normalize it, how can we possibly keep it in check?

The stress in my life is immeasurable. All the doctors, specialists and therapists have told us for almost twenty years, there isn’t a scale that can measure the amount of stress my wife and I endure each and every day of our lives. That’s absolutely the truth and my guess is that this applies to many of you out there as well.

The truly scary thing for me is that I’m so used to feeling this level of stress, I don’t even realize it’s there most of the time. That’s not good. If I’m not actively aware of my stress levels, I’m less likely to do things to help manage said stress.

Does that make sense?

I’m not suggesting that we dwell on how stressed and overwhelmed we are. I just fear that losing sight of how bad the stress is because we’ve normalized it, puts us at greater risk of long-term stress related emotional and physical health problems.

Just because it’s become normal to us, doesn’t change the impact it has on our wellbeing. How we approach this is for another post but for right now, my goal is to simply get you thinking about this and maybe begin doing something to help manage that stress in healthy ways.

My question is simple.

As an Autism parent, do you think you’ve become so used to the high levels of stress in your daily life that you’ve normalized it or no longer realize it’s there?

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